Thursday Books Blog Report: Excitement and Disappointment

The digital countdown is over, the owls have vamooshed, and Pottermore is finally here -- sort of -- with all of its attendant expectations and implications.

Now to bloggers' reviews -- a whiplash-like mixture of excitement and disappointment.

At Chasing Words, Cara asks if anyone else is a bit underwhelmed by today's news.

I feel like that announcement didn't tell me anything more than I already knew last week. It's a website. That's all I got out of J.K. Rowling's video and the Wired.com article, and now I'm kind of itching for October to come so I can actually figure out what the website is, she writes.

A blogger by the name of tolstoy girl provides a lengthy recap of the week leading up to the reveal, with the video, photos, and many details about Pottermore that have emerged today.

She distills Pottermore into a combination of a social networking site (like Facebook) where you can connect with your friends, a role-playing game with a storyline (much like The Sims Stories), and an online, interactive book-reading experience.

You guys have no idea how excited I am after learning more about Pottermore. This images and reports have definitely whetted my appetite for more 'Harry Potter!' she exclaims. I've been really sad these past few days because I thought 'Harry Potter' is finally going to end with the conclusion of the film franchise. I've been blogging, tweeting, and posting statuses ad nauseum about how it's like my childhood. And that it's as if I'm saying goodbye to my dearest and best friend.

Now, she's expecting to say adieu to her social life in October. With the launching of Pottermore, she believes, the magic of Harry Potter will never die.

The writer of That Fond Impossibility is among those less than impressed.

So now we know that we'll find out what it is in OCTOBER. All we know is that it may be free, and it will provide a new reading experience. Eh? the blogger writes. I suppose I'm just looking forward to her revealing edited chapters and abandoned plotlines.

At LiveJournal, keep_counting is wondering What the Hell Is Pottermore?, linking to a YouTube video along the same lines that has an obscenity in the title.

Like, pulling-out-hair, banging-head-against-hard-surface wondering, the blogger says. All I know is 'it's not a new book.' Well, bullocks Rowling ...

Monica Valentinelli gets it -- and professes to be really, really excited.

This experience -- using technology to bridge the gap between author, reader and gamer -- is exactly where I hope to see the rest of the industry go. We are moving toward interstitial experiences to breathe life into our worlds, our stories and our experiences, she says.

She notes that Pottermore can happen because the audience is already there.

A teenage Muggle named Jake says he is relieved that Pottermore is not a massively multiplayer online role-playing game -- which he says could lead to endless unpredictability -- but instead appears to be a much more controlled and thought-out idea for the continuation of Harry Potter.

Jake, who writes The Blog of a Teenage Guy, is pleased by the 18,000 words of new material that Rowling has written for Pottermore, saying that basically all he wanted out of the site is more information.

I love the world of Harry Potter so much, and I want to read the backstories of as many characters as possible and just suck up as much knowledge as possible, he says.

On that note, we leave the last word with The Beat, which ties in the immersive world of Pottermore with a choice by Harry's creator that is very much grounded in practical reality.

While Potter fans are doubtless thrilled about the chance to find out more about Violeta Stitch, Pollus Black and so on, equally significant is Rowling's decision to become her own publisher for e-books and audiobooks, the comics culture blog says. This lady is not stupid.

Edward B. Colby is the Books editor of the International Business Times. He can be reached at e.colby@ibtimes.com.